Kiss of Darkness
by Eleanor Ariail
Summary: It starts with a dream... Then a memory from the past... Will Severus be saved by Hermione's mysterious gift? Can love blossom in the darkness? sorry this has been abandoned
1. The Dream

Hermione made her way up to the head girl's room after a long night of studying. She knew staying up that late wasn't particularly healthy, but she just had to finish her last two papers. Sure, they weren't due for another week or so, but now that they were done, she could resume studying for final exams. She barely managed to change into her nightgown before she fell into her bed, already half asleep.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There were little children running up ahead of her. She knew they were suppose to go with her into the monstrous building that loomed above, but the children couldn't be allowed to get away from her. They were her responsibility, and she wasn't one to neglect anything.  
  
She caught up with them as they entered the doorway. The building was some kind of maze, with stairways and ramps and windows into other rooms. The sound of the children giggling and running bounced off the walls and echoed all around them. Hermione tried to keep the children together and quiet, but they were determined to have a good time on their own. She raced after them, the pounding of her feet echoing through the building.  
  
Finally, they had just gotten too far ahead. She could just barely hear their laughter in the distance, but she didn't know which way they had gone. She began to look around her surroundings more carefully, and discovered that she had wondered into some type of dark cavern.  
  
Glancing up, she realized the low roof was covered in gigantic bats. The adults would have come up at least to her waist, and the babies were about the size of a human baby. The little bats all looked at her expectantly, while the older bats seemed to be deciding whether to eat her.  
  
As she started to back away, she got the urge to do something odd. Suddenly, with a voice she didn't know she possessed, she began to sing a gentle, haunting melody. The baby bats smiled appreciatively at her, and even the adults seemed to approve. The music surrounded her and filled the cavern, and even she could barely realize it actually came from her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She awoke to find herself on one of the unused balconies of Hogwarts, swaying in the wind with just her nightgown on. It had just stopped snowing, and she could see her footprints coming from the door.  
  
As she stood there shivering, still thinking of the oddly realistic dream she'd just had, she noticed that there really was a bat perched on the railing of the balcony. It was looking at her with its head cocked, as if trying to figure something out.  
  
Hermione had never been afraid of bats, but something about this one bothered her. Perhaps it was the dream, or the way the bat gazed at her like it knew what she was thinking.  
  
She started to back away from it to get back to the doorway, but she tripped over the hem of her nightgown. Lying in the fresh snow, she saw the bat flutter down to sit on her arm. It began to crawl up to her head. To get the bat to go away, she tried to sing the song she sung in the dream. Once again, she heard the beautifully strange tune coming from all around her, but felt the vibrations of her own voice in her throat and mouth.  
  
The bat stopped advancing and just looked at her. It slowly began to sway to the music, and then it lit off into the night.  
  
Hermione sat in the snow for a while, pondering over what just happened. Then the cold really hit her, and she had to go in. She changed into a dry nightgown and got into bed just as quickly as she had earlier that night, but this time it took a little longer to fall asleep.  
  
When she woke up the next morning, she thought the whole thing had been a dream, until she saw the still damp nightgown drying over a chair. She wasn't sure what everything that had happened meant, but she planned to do some extra research in the library about bats and music. 


	2. Memory and Musings

Severus Snape sat in an armchair, staring into the glowing embers in his fireplace. He was trying to figure out what had just happened. He hadn't experienced anything like that in the past.how many years was it? It felt like forever. It had made him feel an odd stirring in his chest, something he hadn't felt for years. Twenty years, to be precise. It had all started then.  
  
He joined the Death Eaters when he was a seventh year student at Hogwarts. He was young, and wanted to fit in with a group, any group, and it seemed that they were the only ones that would accept him.  
  
Although the identities of most Death Eaters were kept secret, even from each other, each new recruit was given a mentor - someone to show them what was expected of them and how to keep the Dark Lord pleased. Snape's mentor was a beautiful young woman, only a few years older than him.  
  
She taught him the ways of the Death Eaters, and a few other things. She very easily seduced the impressionable teenager, and was soon using him to get anything she wanted. From illegal potions to expensive jewelry to simple candy, he was willing to give her anything that he could get his hands on. Severus decided that he would give his very life for her, should she desire it.  
  
And so, when she came to him one night asking for a favor, he was more than willing to oblige. She said she was hungry, and needed food. He offered to sneak into the kitchens to get her anything, but she said she needed a different type of food. She needed his blood.  
  
At first Severus thought it was a joke; vampires didn't go around making friends with you and then asking for your blood, they just attacked you and took it. But she was very serious, and so he allowed her to bite him and fell unconscious.  
  
When he had awoken, he felt oddly cold and still. He was alone, and it was the next morning. Looking in the mirror, he saw that his skin was unusually pale and unhealthy-looking, and his formerly thick, smooth black hair had become somewhat stringy and thin. He wondered why he felt so empty, and after a few seconds of searching for a pulse, he realized that he had none. It was as if his heart was simply gone.  
  
And now, twenty years later, he thought he had felt a flicker of a heartbeat as he sat on Hermione's arm, listening to that simple melody. He had been out to stretch his wings and get a bite to eat (he only ate small animals and insects now), when he saw the motion on the balcony. Although he would never bite another human being, he had felt a strange longing to go to her.  
  
As he approached her, he saw that she was sleepwalking. He studied the expressions that flickered across her face as she stumbled through the fresh snow. First confusion, then fear and curiosity, and finally a peaceful smile as she began to sing. He sat on the railing, totally entranced by her song.  
  
Then, she woke with a start, and he could see the confusion on her face as she tried to figure out where she was. When she saw him, she started to back away, and fell into the snow. He wanted to make sure she was alright, and he wanted to hear that song again, so he moved to sit on her arm.  
  
She began to sing hesitantly, and then gained as much confidence as she had had in her sleep. Severus found himself transported by the music. As he listened to it, all his troubles and worries seemed to fade away. He wanted nothing more than to sit there forever and feel the peace and inner warmth he found in the music. But at the same time, the song made him think clearly, and he realized there was only a little while longer until dawn, at which point he would be forced into human form again.  
  
He had flown away and headed for his rooms just as the sun began to rise. Now, he was trying to figure out what it was he had just heard, and how it could pull a heartbeat from a man who presumably no longer had a heart. 


	3. The Library

Hermione ran to the library as soon as her last class was over. She had been inattentive in all of her classes, and even Harry and Ron had noticed something unusual.  
  
"What's wrong with you, Hermione?" Ron had asked. "You didn't even raise your hand when Prof. Flitwick asked what we read for the last assignment. And I know you did the reading, that's all you would talk about at supper yesterday!"  
  
"Oh, nothing. I'm just a little tired. I didn't sleep well last night," she had replied. Well, that much was true. She didn't feel like the boys would understand how a dream could bother her so much, and she was afraid that if she told them about the sleepwalking, they would insist on keeping watch in the common room to make sure it didn't happen again.  
  
When supper was over, she ran over to the library. As soon as she inhaled the stale, musty, bookish air, she felt a little more focused and relaxed. She began her search in the section about animals, magic and muggle, and decided to look in the music section when she was done.  
  
After going through about 50 animal books, all she had found on bats were references to vampires. "Maybe I'm turning into a vampire," she thought. But she wasn't showing any actual vampire symptoms; hers were generally more mild and nicer. Aside from being a little out of it all day, she'd been feeling the overwhelming urge to do things like run through a field of flowers, and cuddle small, furry animals. Although she was a nice girl, she wasn't that sickly sweet most of the time. It was really beginning to get on her nerves.  
  
Suddenly, she felt an odd lurch in the pit of her stomach. She jerked her head out of her book and looked toward the door. Prof. Snape had just slinked in. Hermione wasn't sure why he had attracted her interest, because he didn't really make any noise, and his black robes blended into the shadows of the entranceway. But something about him held her eye, and she saw him go to the very section she had been looking through.  
  
He searched through the shelves for a few minutes before looking straight up at her. He noticed the pile of bat related books next to her and made his way over to her.  
  
"So, Miss Granger, doing some research, I see?" he leered.  
  
"I was just looking up a few things, Professor," she replied.  
  
"What's this, 'Stalkers of the Night,' 'The Feeding Habits of Vampire Bats,' 'Fifty Ways to Kill the Undead,'" He casually tossed the books aside as he read the titles. "'Dracula?' You realize, of course, that the last one is a highly inaccurate book by muggles, don't you?" he sneered at her.  
  
"Of course. I just thought it might have something useful in it. None of these other books do. I even looked in Lockhart's 'Voyages with Vampires,' but it was even worse than the others," she answered indignantly. She wasn't sure why she felt she had to defend her selections to him, but she didn't want him to think she was uninformed on anything.  
  
"What's wrong, didn't you learn enough about vampires from Prof. Lupin's little essay a few years ago? Surely he isn't repeating himself by assigning it again."  
  
"No, I was just doing some independent research. I was just curious, that's all." She nonchalantly tried to cover up for her previous fervor. After all, it was none of his business what she was reading about.  
  
Snape raised one eyebrow and just looked at her for a moment before giving her a brisk "Very well," and storming out of the library. Hermione was so flustered by this encounter that she didn't notice that in going through her books, Snape had taken several of them out of the pile and carried them off with him when he left.  
  
As Severus Snape approached his office, he pulled the purloined books out of his robes. He had snuck away the few that actually held valuable information so that he could reread them himself. Of course, he had sought out all books on vampires when he had become one, but he didn't remember ever seeing mention of a cure. Just to be sure, he started reviewing the books he had gotten.  
  
'Why was that little Granger girl looking up vampires?' Snape mused to himself. 'Surely she doesn't suspect me, even after last night. I wonder what exactly she remembers.' 


	4. The Music Room

Even though Prof. Snape had mellowed slightly since the defeat of Voldemort last year, he was still without a doubt the most feared teacher at Hogwarts. Hermione was still trembling a little from their encounter in the library when she finished her most recent assignments and got ready for bed.  
  
She had not had time to check out magical uses of music that evening, because she had been trapped into playing chess with Ron. She would just have to do that tomorrow, she supposed. She was still suffering slightly from lack of sleep the night before and had to go to bed at a decent hour tonight.  
  
That night, she slept fitfully. The skies were cloudy, and the moon was new. A thick blanket of darkness covered the castle and its grounds, so that even in her tossing and turning, she failed to notice the shadowy silhouette keeping watch on her from her window ledge.  
  
The next morning, Hermione woke up shortly after sunrise and went to the library. The tables were empty, except for one Ravenclaw witch, who was completely absorbed in her book.  
  
She quietly made her way to the extensive music rooms off from the main library. Even though the school offered no formal music classes, Dumbledore had created this section to satisfy his own love of music and to offer a place for any students who shared his passion. The Music Room had many books about music and musicians, as well as regular sheet music, enchanted sheet music that played itself, books with whole concerts played through a series of pictures, quills that wrote music as it was played live, and lockers with instruments - both magical and muggle - stored away. The air seemed to vibrate with the possibility of sound in the still quiet morning.  
  
Careful not to disturb the silence, Hermione scanned the spines of the purely informative books. One dark book caught her eye. Looking closely, she read the faded title: "Nocturnal Notes."  
  
'Bats.Music. This one could be promising.' she thought.  
  
She carefully slid the black, leather-bound book out from between its neighbors and sat down with it at a table. As she cautiously opened the cover, she heard the beginnings of a faint, familiar melody. It almost could have been the very song that she had sung the night before! But a chord was wrong here or there, and the time was a different meter entirely. Still, it was a closer than anything she had ever heard before. She held the book close with the cover cracked near her ear so she would be able to hear it better.  
  
As she sat there entranced by the variations, she heard a tinny alarm going off. She looked at her enchanted watch and realized that she was going to be late for charms class if she did not leave the library now. The books in the music section could not be checked out, so Hermione reluctantly replaced the book and headed out the door. 


End file.
